Mexican Revolution: who were its leaders and everything you need to know

The Mexican Revolution changed the history of the country. It was a bloody political and military process that, in addition to modifying the political and social structures of Mexico, laid the foundations for the current nation with its successes and mistakes.

This is the definitive guide to understanding that momentous period in national history.

What is known as the Mexican Revolution?

The Mexican Revolution was an armed conflict and a political process that occurred between 1910 and 1917, although there is no consensus on the end date. Some sources place the term in 1920, 1924 and even 1940.

During the revolution, the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was proclaimed, thus laying the foundations of the republic as it is known today.

Important dates of the Mexican Revolution

The process of the Mexican Revolution had many important dates, the following standing out:

• November 20, 1910: beginning of the revolution with Madero’s call for a general uprising.
• May 10, 1911: capture of Ciudad Juárez by Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa.
• May 21, 1911 : signing of the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez.
• May 25, 1911 : resignation of Porfirio Díaz.
• November 6, 1911: beginning of the revolutionary government of Francisco I. Madero.
• November 28, 1911: proclamation of the Ayala Plan by Emiliano Zapata.
• February 18, 1913: consummation of the coup d’etat of Victoriano Huerta against Madero.
• February 19, 1913: beginning of the Huerta government and assassination of Gustavo Madero.
• February 22, 1913: assassinations of Francisco I. Madero and José María Pino Suárez.
• March 26, 1913: proclamation of the Plan of Guadalupe and beginning of the Constitutionalist Revolution of Venustiano Carranza.
• April 21, 1914: US occupation of the port of Veracruz.
• June 23, 1914: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas.
• July 15, 1914: resignation of Victoriano Huerta.
• October 10 to November 13, 1914: Aguascalientes Convention.
• April 6 to 15, 1915: Battle of Celaya in which Álvaro Obregón defeats Pancho Villa.
• March 9, 1916: Battle of Columbus (Villa attacks US territory).
• March 14, 1916: Beginning of the American Punitive Expedition in search of Villa.
• January 31, 1917: end of the deliberations of the Constituent Congress of Querétaro.
• February 5, 1917 : entry into force of the new Political Constitution of the United Mexican States.
• May 1, 1917: beginning of the government of Venustiano Carranza.
• April 10, 1919: assassination of Emiliano Zapata.
• May 21, 1920: assassination of Venustiano Carranza.
• December 1, 1920: start of Álvaro Obregón’s government.
• June 20, 1923 : assassination of Pancho Villa.
• December 1, 1924: beginning of the government of Plutarco Elías Calles.

Background of the Mexican revolutionary process

In the history of the Mexican Revolution, a series of political, economic, social and cultural antecedents can be identified, which led to its outbreak in 1910.

Political background of the Mexican Revolution

After the end of the Second French Intervention that put an end to the Second Mexican Empire in 1867, Mexico began a turbulent internal process with the government of Benito Juárez and his rivalry with Porfirio Díaz, a brilliant general during the armed conflict against France.

After the death of Juárez in 1872, Díaz began to lay the foundations to seize the power that he temporarily obtained between 1876 and 1870 and that he consolidated in 1884, ruling uninterruptedly until 1911.

The long dictatorial government of more than 30 years of Porfirio Díaz, unprecedented in the history of the country, laid the political foundations for the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.

Economic background of the Mexican Revolution

Díaz defined himself as a ruler of progress. He promoted the construction of the Mexican railway network and the raising of works, during a time that went down in history with the name of Porfiriato.

Despite this, the distribution of national wealth among Mexicans continued with its historical imbalance and 85% of the country’s arable land was owned by less than 1% of the population, who barely subsisted as peasants dependent on haciendas and as workers. poorly paid in companies that were beginning to flourish.

Between 1908 and 1909 there was a severe drought that led Mexico to the unusual situation of having to import corn, the country’s main food. This set of economic factors were among the triggers of the revolution.

Social background of the Mexican Revolution

To understand what the Mexican Revolution is, it is necessary to consider what the life of the peasants was like in the large estates, to which they were tied by the mechanism of the “line stores”, so called because the illiterate peasants signed their dependence on the ranchers with a stripe.

The laws of the republic were not applied in the haciendas, whose owners enjoyed complete impunity to keep the peasants subjected to an almost feudal slavery.

The workers were subdued with brutal methods by the Corps of Rurales, a mounted force that protected the areas of the field from robbers and bandits and that allowed the traffic of stagecoaches and caravans.

Workers’ movements fighting against misery began to emerge in the cities and industrial production companies, but the strikes in Cananea (copper mine in Sonora) and Río Blanco (textile factory in Veracruz) were brutally repressed.

Cultural background of the Mexican Revolution

For the first decade of the 20th century, Mexico was a nation with an overwhelming majority of mestizo and indigenous populations.

Another reason why the Mexican Revolution began was the historical postponement of these broad national majorities in decision-making, the exercise of government and the distribution of national wealth.

During the last stage of the Porfiriato, an influential power group known as The Scientists was formed in Mexico, made up of politicians, intellectuals and businessmen.

This club claimed to have a kind of intellectual superiority to the government and was one of the main supporters of Porfirio Díaz during his final period.

The postulates of social Darwinism with which a sector of society considered itself more apt to hold power collided with the current philosophical and political currents, which constituted one of the cultural antecedents of the revolutionary process.

The leader who would embody the yearning for change would be the Coahuilense, Francisco I. Madero.

The irruption of Madero, the centenary of Independence and the Plan of San Luis

Francisco Ignacio Madero González was born in Parras de Fuente, Coahuila, in 1873. He was the son of a landowner and the grandson of a state governor and as a scion of the elite in power, he studied in France for 5 years specializing in economic and commercial issues.

Mexico was getting ready in 1910 for a new and fraudulent re-election of Porfirio Díaz as president. A year earlier, Madero had founded the National Anti-Reelection Party, which was joined by personalities such as Venustiano Carranza, Luis Cabrera, Francisco Vázquez Gómez, and José M. Maytorena.

The academic made several tours of the country to promote his movement, but was arrested in Monterrey (Nuevo León) accused of inciting a rebellion and imprisoned in San Luis Potosí. In June 1910, Porfirio Díaz was reelected.

Mexican independence centennial

Madero was released after only 45 days in prison when he received the city for jail. Meanwhile, in September, Porfirio Díaz pompously celebrated the first centenary of independence with the attendance of ministers plenipotentiary and ambassadors from Spain, the United States, Germany, China, Cuba, and France.

During the festivities, the Marquis, Camilo García de Polavieja, personal representative of the Spanish King Alfonso XIII, gave Díaz the uniform of José María Morelos in the power of Spain since his execution in 1815.

The Saint Louis Plan

Madero escaped from San Luis Potosí on October 6, 1910 and took refuge in San Antonio Texas, where he met with his family and supporters.

In this city, together with a handful of collaborators, he drafted the Plan of San Luis, which received that name because it was dated in San Luis Potosí on October 5, 1910.

Madero declared the presidential, deputy, senator and magistrate elections of the Supreme Court of Justice null and void and called on Mexicans to an armed struggle to overthrow Porfirio Díaz and establish a government that would vindicate the aspirations of indigenous people, peasants and workers.

In the call, the leader received the titles of Chief of the Revolution and Provisional President and invited the Mexicans to a generalized uprising the following November 20. Therefore, the Mexican Revolution 1910 was its starting year.

The Madero Revolution

The historical review of November 20 indicates that on that date Madero crossed the Rio Grande to enter Mexican territory, although he returned to the United States after minor skirmishes. He moved to New Orleans because in San Antonio there was an arrest warrant against him.

Madero’s call to revolution on November 20, 1910 was followed by 8 uprisings in Chihuahua, 3 in Veracruz, one in San Luis Potosí and one more in Durango. The first of these occurred in Gómez Palacio and for this reason that Durango city is considered the cradle of the Mexican Revolution.

The spark sets the prairie on fire

The first relevant figure killed in the process was the Pueblan revolutionary, Aquiles Serdán, who had been commissioned by Madero to organize the movement in Puebla, but was besieged at his home and killed on November 19.

Although it was thought that Serdán’s death would abort the revolution, the process rather spread among the townspeople who had nothing to do with Madero’s political party, which led to other adhesions, including Sonora, Coahuila, Guerrero and Morelos. .

The most relevant uprisings were that of Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco and that of José de la Luz Blanco, in Chihuahua; that of José María Maytorena and the brothers Eulalio and Luis Gutiérrez Ortiz and that of Cesáreo Castro, in Coahuila; that of Emiliano Zapata in Morelos and that of the Figueroa brothers, in Guerrero.

The first combat of the Madero Revolution

The first confrontation between the government forces and the revolutionaries occurred on November 21 in Ciudad Guerrero, Chihuahua, with Pascual Orozco defeating the third cavalry regiment and seizing the plaza on November 30.

Porfirio Díaz sent the 20th infantry battalion to Ciudad Guerrero and the revolutionaries had to withdraw after 6 hours of combat in inferior conditions. Two days later, however, they counterattacked and retook the city, but had to abandon it again after the arrival of new federal troops.

Meanwhile, the revolution caught on in Zacatecas and Sonora where Luis Moya, Salvador Alvarado and Juan G. Cabral took up arms, managing to take some seats.

Return of Madero to Mexico

The beginning of the armed movement in several Mexican states induced Francisco I. Madero to return to the country to lead the struggle. He entered through Chihuahua accompanied by his brother Gustavo and several of his supporters in February 1911.

On March 6 of the same year he attempted to take the Chihuahuan town of Casas Grandes at the head of 800 men, but was defeated by Colonel Agustín A. Valdez, in command of the 18th infantry battalion.

The conflict continued to spread throughout the country and the process went from being an anti-reelection movement to becoming an aspiration for general change backed by peasants, workers and professionals from all corners of Mexico.

peace talks

Porfirio Díaz had taken the unpopular measure of suspending individual guarantees and worried about the extension of the revolution and the accumulation of US troops on the border, he agreed to a peace talks with the revolutionary leadership.

The meeting was held in New York. He went on the Maderista side, Francisco Madero (father) and Gustavo Madero, brother of the leader; On the government side, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit, José Ives Limantour.

The revolutionary representation delivered a document in which Diaz was asked for political freedom, the democratization of the government and the adoption of the non-reelection, among other measures.

Porfirio Díaz carried out an almost total renewal of his executive cabinet and sent a request to Congress for a non-reelection law. However, the changes were not satisfactory to Madero, who insisted on the resignation of Díaz and Vice President Ramón Corral. After other negotiating attempts, the talks broke down and Madero set up his military camp near Ciudad Juárez.

Division in the revolutionary forces and capture of Ciudad Juárez

Disobeying Madero’s orders, revolutionary forces under the command of Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa attacked Ciudad Juárez on May 8, 1911, taking the plaza just two days later.

After this conquest, Francisco I. Madero was ratified as provisional President, naming a Council of State made up of Gustavo Madero, Venustiano Carranza and José María Pino Suárez, among others.

Treaties of Ciudad Juarez

On May 21, 1911, the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez were signed, a peace agreement between the Maderista and government forces that contemplated:

• The resignation of Porfirio Díaz and Ramón Corral to the presidency and vice-presidency of the Republic, respectively.
• The appointment of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Francisco León de la Barra, as interim president until new elections are held.
• The payment of compensation for the damages caused during the conflict.
• The allocation of land to peasants.

With the signing of the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez, the first phase of the Mexican Revolution known as the Maderista Revolution concluded.

Major events of the Madero Revolution

The Maderista Revolution had culminating moments in the period 1911-1913. Among these the following:

The resignation of Porfirio Diaz

Porfirio Díaz handed in his resignation before the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies on May 25, 1911. On May 31, he boarded the steamer Ipiranga in the port of Veracruz bound for France. He passed away in Paris 4 years later, on July 2, 1915.

The interim presidency of Francisco León de la Barra

Francisco León de la Barra held the interim presidency between May 25 and November 6, 1911, a quite conflictive period of the Mexican Revolution because the president had Maderistas, Porfiristas and independents in his cabinet.

The entrance on the scene of Zapatismo

The peace agreements had not been very well received by all the revolutionary power factors. These established that the forces of the revolutionary armies should be discharged to return to daily life, but Emiliano Zapata opposed the disarmament of his men until the promises of agrarian reform were fulfilled.

Madero tried to mediate with Zapata, but the interim president ordered the general, Victoriano Huerta, to attack the Zapatista army. Zapata and his forces fell back towards the mountains of Puebla and Guerrero.

Shortly after, the military and agrarian leader issued a statement exonerating Madero and accusing the “scientific traitors” linked to Porfirismo of wanting to take power. In that manifesto, Emiliano Zapata announced the formation of the Liberation Army of the South.

More dissent

The leader, Andrés Molina Enríquez, promulgated the Texcoco Plan on August 23, 1911, in which he called for disregarding the government of the interim president and for resuming the armed struggle, proposing Emilio Vázquez Gómez as head of the revolutionary army. As a consequence, he was jailed for a year.

On October 31 of that same year, another plan would come to the fore, that of Tacubaya, in which Paulino Martínez was unaware of the results of the recent elections in which Madero had been elected President of the Republic.

Martínez, who would later be an ideologue of Zapatismo, accused Madero of treason and alliances with Porfirismo.

The election of Francisco I. Madero as President of the Republic

In order to participate in the electoral process scheduled for October 1911, Madero founded the Progressive Constitutional Party in August, whose main postulates were the non-reelection of the president and the application of the economic and social measures of the San Luis Plan.

Madero was elected president with 99.27% ​​of the votes, defeating Francisco León de la Barra and Emilio Vázquez Gómez, while José María Pino Suárez won the vice presidency with 52.79% of the votes.

At that time, Mexican elections were indirect or second grade, as stipulated in the 1857 Constitution.

First, citizens eligible to vote chose an electoral college. Literate males over the age of 21 or over 18, if they were married, possessed of property and had an honest way of life, had the right to vote.

They elected a representative for every 500 voters and these delegates were the ones who later voted to appoint the president and other positions.

Madero’s government (1911 – 1913)

With the election of Madero as President in 1911, one of the most exciting and turbulent stages of the Mexican Revolution began.

In November of that year, the Constitution was modified to absolutely prohibit presidential and vice-presidential reelection after 2 terms.

Between December 1911 and May 1912, the electoral law was promulgated and reformulated, expanding the voter registry and limiting government intervention in the elections.

The structure of government was turned upside down with new governors replacing old caudillos and a government apparatus with a greater presence of the professionalized middle class. However, the situation of peasants and workers did not change much and influential revolutionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata and Pascual Orozco initiated political and military actions.

The Plan of Ayala by Emiliano Zapata

Immediately after assuming the presidency of the Republic, Madero asked Zapata to discharge his troops and disband his army. This set as conditions the promulgation of an agrarian law that would improve the life of the peasantry, the withdrawal of the federal army, the pardon of the Zapatista leaders and the removal of the governor of Morelos, Ambrosio Figueroa.

Madero rejected Zapata’s proposal and sent the army to the village of Ayala (current Ciudad Ayala), where the Zapatista forces were surrounded. Zapata managed to escape to Puebla and on November 28, 1911, he proclaimed the Ayala Plan, ignoring Madero’s government and accusing him of treason and alliances with the former power factors.

In the Ayala Plan, Emiliano Zapata recognized Pascual Orozco as head of the revolution, assuming the leadership of the movement himself if the Chihuahuan rejected the offer. During 1912, the Madero government engaged the Zapatistas in low-intensity fighting.

The uprising of Pascual Orozco

The historical review of the Mexican Revolution marks the taking of Ciudad Juárez as the breaking of relations between Pascual Orozco and Francisco I. Madero.

The situation worsened after the signing of the Treaties of Ciudad Juárez al Orozco not being included in the provisional government. Things did not improve when Abraham González, Madero’s candidate, defeated Pascual Orozco in the election for governor of Chihuahua.

In March 1912, Orozco dismissed Madero as President with the so-called Empacadora Plan (named after the building where it was enacted), calling to arms. Given this, Madero commissioned Victoriano Huerta to quell the rebellion and after defeating it, he returned to Mexico City as a hero of the revolution and a trusted man of the national president.

The rebellion of Bernardo Reyes

In addition to having been a soldier from Guadalajara who fought during the Second French Intervention, Bernardo Reyes, father of the famous Monterrey writer Alfonso Reyes, was governor of Nuevo León for more than 20 years during the Porfiriato.

Reyes launched the Plan de la Soledad in San Antonio (Texas) in November 1911, thus ignoring the Madero government. When he returned to Mexico a month later he found that his supporters had deserted and he decided to turn himself in to the authorities, being tried and imprisoned.

The uprising of Felix Diaz

The soldier Félix Díaz, Porfirio’s nephew, took up arms against Madero in October 1912. The movement did not have the expected support and Díaz was defeated, tried and sentenced to death, a punishment later reduced to life imprisonment. He was released during the Tragic Decade.

The intervention of the American ambassador

During the Madero government, the United States ambassador to the Mexican state was Henry Lane Wilson, a lawyer and publicist from Crawfordsville, Indiana, considered the worst responsible American diplomat in Mexico, especially for his interventionism and influence in the fall of the leader and President.

Wilson fell out with Madero and began intervening in Mexican politics to overthrow him. The main reasons for the discord were Madero’s nationalist economic measures that affected US interests and a new law that forced foreigners who worked in the exploitation of Mexican oil to pay taxes.

Another Maderista provision was that American workers in the railroad industry who did not speak Spanish were replaced by Mexicans.

The ambassador’s reports to his government began to alarm the United States regarding the integrity of its citizens and their investments in Mexico.

The Embassy Pact

During the final day of the Tragic Decade that culminated in the overthrow of Madero, Victoriano Huerta and Félix Díaz met to agree on the steps to be taken after the fall of the President, an agreement known as the Embassy Pact because it was signed at the headquarters American diplomat, under the auspices and collaboration of Ambassador Wilson.

Henry Lane Wilson was removed from office in 1913 after Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States and commissioned a report on his country’s involvement in the overthrow and death of Madero.

The report concluded that Ambassador Wilson collaborated with the coup and may have prevented the death of the Mexican president. Therefore he was relieved of his duties.

The Tragic Ten

In the historical review of the Mexican Revolution, the 10 days between February 9 and 18, 1913 are known as the Tragic Decade, the period in which the military coup against President Francisco I. Madero was perpetrated.

Background of the Tragic Decade

Madero’s staunch enemies, Bernardo Reyes and Félix Díaz, were in jail after failing in their respective uprisings.

The generals, Manuel Mondragón and Gregorio Ruiz, and the businessman, Cecilio Ocón, met in Havana, Cuba, in October 1912, to plan the coup against Madero. Later, they visited Reyes and Díaz in prison, whom they would release from jail at the beginning of the coup so that they would lead the uprising.

Bernardo Reyes proposed inviting Victoriano Huerta to join the movement, but the Colombian general refused, considering that it was not the right time.

At the same time, the US ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, began a campaign against the Madero government in the US press, accusing him of endangering the integrity of his compatriots living in Mexico and the security of his country’s investments.

Wilson even proposed to President William Howard Taft a military intervention to overthrow Madero.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 9, 1913

The uprising began at dawn on February 9, 1913 with Mondragón and Ruíz raising the cadets of the Tlalpan Military School of Aspirants and the troops of the Tacubaya barracks.

A vanguard group of the rebels managed to capture the National Palace, taking Gustavo Madero and General Ángel García Peña prisoner.

The defender of the Palace, General Lauro Villar, managed to recover the seat of government by taking the coup plotters by surprise through the back doors.

Meanwhile, Bernardo Reyes and Feliz Díaz had been released from jail. A column of rebels led by Reyes arrived at the zócalo and Villar tried to convince them to lay down their arms. Reyes charged and was killed by a volley of rifle fire.

After failing, the coup plotters disbanded and Madero, who was in Chapultepec Castle, went to the National Palace. Victoriano Huerta was appointed military commander of the plaza to replace Villar, who had been wounded in the confrontation with Reyes.

Considering the events to come, Huerta’s appointment was a tragic decision on February 9. This ordered the execution of Ruiz so as it is believed, to close his mouth.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 10, 1913

In the afternoon of February 9, Madero had left for Cuernavaca to personally request the support of General Felipe Ángeles, who was fighting Zapata’s troops. Both arrived in Mexico City a day later.

Madero wanted to appoint Ángeles as military chief of the plaza, but the Minister of War, Ángel García Peña, dissuaded him on the grounds of respecting the line of military command by keeping Huerta in office.

The forces loyal to Madero added 6 thousand men in Mexico City with troops arriving from Cuernavaca, Teotihuacán, Celaya and Querétaro, on February 10.

On February 9, Victoriano Huerta formulated a plan to attack the rebels who had reorganized and taken up positions in the fortress of La Ciudadela.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 11, 1913

The attack on La Ciudadela began on February 11 at 10:30 am The 4 columns of Huerta, who by that time was already suspected of disloyalty to President Madero, were swept away by the machine guns located in the fortress.

During the day, Victoriano Huerta had a secret meeting with Félix Díaz, head of the rebels, in which they agreed to overthrow Madero, trying to ensure that there were the least number of casualties among his own.

Huerta allowed the passage of provisions to the Citadel and when Madero demanded it, he told him that it was a tactic to concentrate the enemy forces and finish them off. The President kept Huerta as commander of the plaza, despite suspicions of treason by the Maderistas.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 12, 1913

The attack on La Ciudadela was resumed with artillery fire at 6 am on February 12.

Huerta had agreed with Díaz on the routes by which the forces loyal to Madero would go, sending them to their deaths, while protecting his most trusted people.

A second attack continued to increase casualties among the Maderista forces. That day there were many casualties among the civilian population living in the vicinity of La Ciudadela, which was presented as the President’s inability to defeat the uprising.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 13, 1913

A rebel shot hit the Mariana Gate of the National Palace, showing that the seat of government was within range of enemy fire.

The fight spread through several streets of Mexico City (Morelos, Victoria and Doctor Vértiz) and grenades fell on the American Club, located on the corner of Gante and San Francisco streets, and on the German Casino, on López street.

The coup plotters took the Campo Florido church, turning it into a scene of combat.

Ambassador Wilson intensified his attacks against Madero asking President Taft for an armed intervention to safeguard US interests.

Enrique Cepeda, compadre and old friend of Victoriano Huerta, visited Ambassador Wilson to organize a meeting between Huerta and Félix Díaz, to establish the plan for Madero’s fall.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 14, 1913

On February 14, forces from Oaxaca and the troops of General Aureliano Blanquet, who were in Toluca fighting the Zapatistas, arrived in Mexico City.

These reinforcements went into action with adverse results and with the escape of 2 companies that went over to the rebel side. Huerta explained to Madero that the problem had been a lack of supplies.

The rebels were besieged, making evident the failure of the uprising, but the objective of Huerta and Díaz was to maintain uncertainty and fear among the population of a possible US intervention, in order to justify the coup d’état by accusing Madero of not being able to control the situation.

Madero telegraphed Taft assuring him that he would do everything possible to safeguard the lives of Americans and asking him not to carry out any military intervention that he might have planned.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 15, 1913

Ambassador Wilson pressured the diplomatic representatives of Germany, England, and Spain to support him in his position on Madero’s incompetence to control the situation.

With the support of these members of the diplomatic corps, Wilson asked the Madero government to put public order in the capital in the hands of the police and not the soldiers, and thereby give command to a police linked to the Porfiriato and in favor of the coup. of State against Madero.

On February 15, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pedro Lascuráin, and 24 senators asked the President to resign and to safeguard his life.

According to the 1857 Constitution, Lascuráin had to temporarily cover Madero’s absence, but he refused to resign and that same day his house was burned down despite being far from the war scenes.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 16, 1913

On February 16, a 24-hour armistice was agreed from 2 am The population left to provide themselves with food and some families who were in the most dangerous places took the opportunity to look for safer places.

During the morning, violating the armistice, vehicles entered La Ciudadela to take food to the coup plotters.

The rebels used the armistice to better position their machine guns. The colonel, Rubén Morales, an ally of Madero, planned a night attack that was aborted by Victoriano Huerta.

Juan Sánchez Ancona, private secretary of the President, surprised Huerta in a meeting with Enrique Cepeda and Alberto García Granados, sympathizers of the coup.

The engineer, Alberto José Pani, a friend and supporter of Madero, made the President see the possibility of an agreement between Huerta and the besieged. Despite so much evidence of Huerta’s betrayal, Madero kept him in the position of military commander of the plaza.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 17, 1913

On February 17, Madero received a cable from President Taft assuring him that US forces were not planning to land on Mexican soil.

Pressure from the diplomatic corps, opposition senators, and the Secretary of Foreign Relations continued to propose that Huerta be appointed Governor General.

Inquired by Madero, Huerta declared that they had made him the proposal, but that he had rejected it. Later that same day, Gustavo Madero became aware of his betrayal and took him at gunpoint to the President. Huerta denied the betrayal and asked for 24 hours to end the uprising. Madero granted the requested term.

The Tragic Decade: events of February 18, 1913

On February 18, 1913, the coup d’état against President Madero was carried out in 3 stages: the National Palace, the Gambrinus restaurant and the United States Embassy.

Madero and the vice president, José María Pino Suárez, were arrested at the National Palace by Aureliano Blanquet, promoted to division general shortly after.

Gustavo Madero, the President’s brother, was arrested at the Gambrinus restaurant by a force made up of 25 forest rangers.

Enrique Cepeda contacted Ambassador Wilson to inform him of the recent events. Shortly after, the meeting was held at the diplomatic headquarters to sign the Embassy Pact.

The alliance between Victoriano Huerta and Félix Díaz established that the first of these would be in charge of the provisional government, with a cabinet made up of supporters of Díaz and the late Bernardo Reyes.

Díaz preferred not to accept positions to reserve himself as a presidential candidate, with victory practically assured. As of the signing of the pact, the military actions were terminated.

Immediate consequences of the Tragic Decade

On February 18, jubilation and celebrations had broken out in La Ciudadela for the success of the coup. The festivities continued while the drunken soldiers demanded that their chiefs hand over the Madero brothers and the most important Maderistas.

The murders of Gustavo Madero and Adolfo Bassó

Victoriano Huerta refused to hand over Francisco I. Madero because he needed his resignation to legalize the coup and assume the presidency. In return, he handed over Gustavo Madero and the frigate captain, Adolfo Bassó, Mayor of the National Palace, to the mob.

Gustavo Madero was cruelly murdered. They ripped out the good eye that he kept to make him blind, they shot him 37 times, they extracted his false eye and his body was mutilated and burned. Adolfo Bassó was shot.

Madero’s resignation

The Cuban and Spanish ambassadors had been instructed by their governments not to recognize Huerta.

The Cuban ambassador, Manuel Márquez Sterling, offered political asylum to Madero and Pino Suárez on his island. Huerta assured that he would respect their lives if they resigned.

Under these conditions, Francisco I. Madero and José María Pino Suárez resigned from the presidency and vice presidency of Mexico, respectively.

The letters of resignation were taken to Congress by the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Pedro Lascuráin. After being accepted and in accordance with the Constitution of 1857, he assumed the interim presidency, but his mandate lasted 45 minutes, the shortest in the history of Mexico.

The only administrative act of Pedro Lascuráin was to appoint Victoriano Huerta as Secretary of Foreign Relations. He immediately resigned from the presidency and it was assumed by Huerta with a mantle of legality.

Madero waits to go into exile

Madero and Pino Suárez were waiting at the National Palace for the arrival at the port of Veracruz of the steamer that would take them to Cuba.

Sara Pérez Romero, Madero’s wife, the parents and some siblings of the ousted president, had taken refuge in the Japanese embassy.

On the night of February 21, Mercedes González Treviño, mother of Francisco I. Madero, visited her son and informed him of the tragic end of his brother Gustavo. The news upset him greatly, so much so that he spent the rest of the night crying silently.

Huerta was afraid that Madero would reach Veracruz because the Veracruz army and navy might support him and initiate a new armed movement.

The assassination of Francisco I. Madero and José María Pino Suárez

Victoriano Huerta, Manuel Mondragón, Félix Díaz, Aureliano Blanquet and Rodolfo Reyes coordinated the murders of Madero and Pino Suárez on February 22. The commission was entrusted to the rural mayor, Francisco Cárdenas, who had to fake an assault.

The prisoners had already gone to bed in the National Palace at 10 pm when Cárdenas arrived with an order for their transfer to the Lecumberri Penitentiary.

The vehicles in which Madero and Pino Suárez were traveling were taken to a place away from the prison. Francisco Cárdenas murdered Madero inside the vehicle. Pino Suárez tried to escape but was shot down by Rafael Pimienta and then finished off.

Cárdenas and his men opened fire on the vehicles to fake an assault. Huerta made a statement announcing that the prisoners’ escort had been assaulted by a crowd and that there would be an investigation to clarify the facts. After midnight, Francisco Cárdenas appeared at the palace to report on the success of his mission and Manuel Mondragón gave him 18,000 pesos for the work.

The I accuse of the deputy Luis Manuel Rojas

Emulating the French writer, Émile Zola, in his famous defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, on February 23, the deputy, Luis Manuel Rojas, read before Congress a manifesto in the style of I accuse, in which he held the American ambassador Henry Lane morally responsible Wilson of the deaths of Madero and Pino Suárez.

Victoriano Huerta came out in defense of the diplomat, arguing that the deaths had been caused by an attack by his supporters, and Alberto García Granados, Secretary of the Interior, announced that Rojas would be stripped of his privileges as a deputy so that he could prove his accusations.

After the dissolution of the congress in 1913, Luis Manuel Rojas was imprisoned.

The dictatorial government of Victoriano Huerta

Huerta began to behave in an openly dictatorial manner as soon as he came to power. His government was sustained with the support of the military high command, the large landowners, the clergy and most of the regional powers, with the exception of the governors Venustiano Carranza (Coahuila) and José María Maytorena (Sonora).

Huerta’s goals were to pacify the country and gain international recognition, particularly from the United States. To do this, he granted amnesties and set out to win the support of Pascual Orozco and Emiliano Zapata.

Pascual Orozco’s betrayal of Madero

On February 27, Pascual Orozco recognized the government of Victoriano Huerta and sent his father to convince Emiliano with the offer of the governorship of Morelos.

To support him, Orozco obtained some concessions from Huerta, among them, the employment of his troops as rural guards and the payment of salaries and pensions for widows and orphans on account of the public treasury.

Zapata flatly refused to recognize Huerta and accused Orozco of treason, shooting Pascual Orozco (senior). In May 1913, Zapata modified the Ayala Plan to ignore Huerta and classify Orozco as a traitor to the revolution.

The dissolution of congress

Victoriano Huerta did not have it all with him in Congress. The Madero group was extremely critical. In September 1913, the Chiapas congressman, Belisario Domínguez Palencia, wrote a speech in which he accused Huerta of being a murderer.

Faced with the impediment of reading it in the Senate, Domínguez spread it in writing, but on October 7 of that same year he was cruelly assassinated. His enemy, the doctor and Secretary of the Interior, Aureliano Urrutia Sandoval, cut out his tongue and sent it to Huerta to ingratiate himself with the dictator.

Huerta dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and jailed 90 parliamentarians. Recovering from health, the senate dissolved itself and Huerta assumed extraordinary powers.

The circumstances of Belisario Domínguez’s martyrdom came to light soon after and were a major factor in Huerta’s downfall.

The American Proposal

After coming to power, the unfortunate role of Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson in the fall and death of Madero became clear to the US president.

Lane Wilson was replaced by John Lind as United States Ambassador to Mexico and presented Victoriano Huerta with a 4-point proposal.

The points proposed were a ceasefire and a definitive armistice, the organization of new free elections with the participation of all political forces, Huerta’s non-participation in the elections, and an agreement by the participants to recognize the new government and support it.

Huerta rejected the American proposal and President Wilson made the decision to declare the neutrality of the United States in the Mexican conflict. With this decision, the opposing factions were prevented from buying weapons in the United States.

The Plan of Guadalupe and the Constitutionalist Revolution

On March 26, 1913, the governor of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, repudiated Huerta’s coup against Madero and ignored the three national powers (federal government, congress and supreme court). The proclamation was launched at the Hacienda de Guadalupe, in the Coahuila city of Ramos Arizpe.

Carranza announced the formation of a Constitutionalist Army of which he appointed himself the first chief, with the aim of overthrowing the usurper, restoring the legal order and launching a truly revolutionary government.

Adherence to the Plan of Guadalupe

Carranza’s manifesto quickly found support elsewhere in Coahuila and in Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango, capturing important military officers and troop commanders.

In Coahuila, he received the support of his brother, Jesús Carranza Garza, Pablo González Garza, Francisco Coss Ramos (Pancho Patada), Cesáreo Castro and Jacinto Blas Treviño, veterans of the struggles against Porfirio Díaz.

In Sonora, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta, who would have relevant national roles in years to come, as well as Salvador Alvarado Rubio and Manuel Diéguez, joined the Constitutionalist Revolution.

In Chihuahua, after the historic caudillo Pascual Orozco had gone over to the Huertista side, support for Carranza came from Pancho Villa, Maclovio Herrera, Toribio Ortega and Rosalío Hernández.

In Durango Tomás Urbina, Calixto Contreras, Orestes Pereyra and the brothers Domingo, Eduardo and Mariano Arrieta joined the Plan de Guadalupe, while in Zacatecas Pánfilo Natera and Fortunato Maycotte joined Carranza’s movement.

Constitutionalist Convention

The first Constitutionalist Convention was held in the Coahuila city of Monclova on April 18, 1913, with the participation of delegates from Coahuila, Chihuahua and Sonora.

The 3-day meeting ratified the Guadalupe Plan, decided to unite the military forces of the 3 states into a single army, and elected Venustiano Carranza as leader of the rebellion in the north and First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army.

The Northern Division, commanded by Pancho Villa, would operate in Chihuahua and part of the Comarca Lagunera. The Northeast Division was commanded by Pablo González and the Center Division was assigned to Pánfilo Natera.

The beginning of the armed movement of the Constitutionalist Revolution occurred in May 1913 when Álvaro Obregón, in command of the Northwest Division, took the towns of Santa María and Santa Rosa, ensuring control of Sonora. He advanced along the Pacific coast and reached the center of Jalisco.

Support for the Guadalupe Plan in the center and south of the country

Carranza’s movement received less support in the center and south of the country than in the north.

In the center, most of the population lived in cities more easily controlled by the Huerta government. In San Luis Potosí the brothers Saturnino, Magdaleno and Celofás Cedillo took up arms, although they did so apart from the Carrancistas.

Nicolás Flores, Francisco Mariel, Vicente Salazar and Daniel Cerecedo operated in Hidalgo, while Máximo Rojas and Domingo and Cirilo Arenas did it in Tlaxcala. In the south, Carranza’s movement had little echo due to the lack of communication and the distance from the main battlefields.

Zapata continued his struggles against the federal government, but with an independent army. In Guerrero, the new revolution received the support of Jesús Salgado, Julián Blanco and the brothers Rómulo, Ambrosio and Francisco Figueroa. In Oaxaca, Juan José Baños joined and in Tlaxcala several local leaders joined, although without disturbing the federal government with their actions.

The Tampico Incident

On April 9, 1914, a minor incident occurred between US sailors and Mexican soldiers from the federal garrison in Tampico (Tamaulipas). At that time, forces of the Constitutionalist Revolution were a few kilometers from the prosperous oil town of Tamaulipas, inhabited by a large group of Americans and protected by US warships.

The incident occurred when soldiers from the Huerta government detained a group of sailors who were loading gasoline in a restricted area because it was close to the zone occupied by Carranza’s rebels.

The Marines were detained in Tampico until a strong US protest forced the Huertistas to release them.

Although the Huerta government apologized for the incident, the US commander requested that Mexican troops honor the US flag as compensation. The Mexican commander also called for US Marines to honor the Mexican flag.

This is how things stood when the US Occupation of Veracruz began on April 21, 1914, to which the Tampico Incident was a kind of prologue.

The American Occupation of Veracruz

After Huerta’s coup against Madero, US relations with Mexico entered a crisis.

On March 4, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson took power, dismissing the United States ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, for his participation in the Huertista coup.

Woodrow Wilson ignored the government of Victoriano Huerta and sided with the Constitutionalist Revolution led by Venustiano Carranza. Without mediating a declaration of war by the United States against Mexico, ships and troops of sailors and marines occupied the port of Veracruz on April 21, 1914.

The port was precariously defended by Huerta’s troops, made up of a hundred federal soldiers, cadets from the Naval Military School, and prisoners released from jail.

On April 30, the sailors and marines were replaced by soldiers from the US Army. The objective of the occupation was to prevent Huerta from using the port to receive weapons. The seizure ended on November 23, 1914 when the port was handed over to General Cándido Aguilar, representative of the Constitutionalist Revolution.

Advances of the Constitutionalist Revolution

At the beginning of 1914, the Constitutionalist Army controlled all of northern Mexico, with the exception of Baja California.

The Cedillo brothers dominated San Luis Potosí. In Tepic Rafael Buelna fought successfully, while in Jalisco Félix Bañuelos and Julián Medina did so.

In Michoacán, the Carrancista forces advanced under the command of José Rentería Luviano, Joaquín Amaro Domínguez, and Gertrudis Sánchez, while in Veracruz, the constitutionalists were led by Cándido Aguilar, Antonio Galindo, Hilario Salas, and Miguel Alemán.

Beginning in March, the northern armies began their advance toward the central part of the country and Mexico City, with Pancho Villa in the center, Álvaro Obregón in the west, and Pablo González in the east. These advances motivated numerous uprisings in the central Mexican states.

The Taking of Zacatecas

Zacatecas was a city of crucial strategic importance due to its status as a railway hub and the wealth of its silver mines. It was taken by Pancho Villa on June 23, 1914 in a tough battle, in which the so-called “Centauro del Norte” dealt Victoriano Huerta’s forces a decisive defeat.

The historical account of the Mexican Revolution points to the Taking of Zacatecas as one of the bloodiest confrontations of the revolutionary process.

Although casualty figures are imprecise, it is estimated that the federal army killed some 6,000 and the revolutionaries killed at least 1,000. The imprisoned Huerta soldiers had to choose between being shot or joining Villa’s army.

The defeat of Victoriano Huerta was practically decided with the Taking of Zacatecas by the Constitutionalist Revolution.

The feared Division of the North already had free passage towards Mexico City, while at the other end Emiliano Zapata had seized Chilpancingo, Huerta’s last stronghold in the south.

The resignation of Victoriano Huerta

On July 14, 1914, Huerta fled Mexico City. His regime, after the coup against Madero, had lasted just over 16 months.

On July 15, he presented his resignation to Congress and began an exile in several countries until his death in El Paso (Texas) on January 13, 1916.

In Huerta’s absence, the federal government was left in the hands of his foreign minister, Francisco Carvajal, whose sole task was to formally hand over the government to the Constitutionalist Army and negotiate the surrender of the defeated federal forces.

After almost a month of talks, on August 13, 1914, the Treaties of Teoloyucan were signed.

The Treaties of Teoloyucan

These treaties celebrated in the Mexican town of Teoloyucan were signed by Álvaro Obregón and Lucio Blanco, representing the victors and by Lauro Villar, Othon P. Blanco, Gustavo A. Salas and José Refugio Velazco, for the defeated side.

The agreements established the conditions for the delivery of the arms of the Federal Army to the Constitutionalist Army and the dissolution of the former. After the signing, Venustiano Carranza ordered the closure of the Military College, which reopened in 1920. The Constitutionalist Army began its evolution until it became the current Mexican army.

Discrepancies between Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza

After the Taking of Zacatecas, Pancho Villa could not be the first commander of the Constitutionalist Army to enter Mexico City, because Venustiano Carranza delayed the coal shipments necessary to move the Villista troops’ railways.

Carranza was upset with Villa because before the Taking of Zacatecas he had ordered him to send reinforcement troops in support of Pánfilo Natera, who was already attacking in that plaza, but the Duranguense chief decided to mobilize the entire Northern Division.

Another discomfort between Villa and Carranza was because the former had not been invited to the signing of the Treaties of Teoloyucan. To smooth things over, on July 8, 1914, the Pact of Torreón was signed.

The Pact of Torreon

This pact signed between representatives of Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza established the following:

• The recognition of Carranza as the head of the Constitutionalist Army.
• The promotion of Villa to division general and his reinstatement in command of the Northern Division, which he had resigned due to his discrepancies with Carranza.
• The calling of a convention of revolutionary commanders and governors to discuss the organization of future elections and formulate a government plan.

Despite the signing of the pact, it was believed that neither side would fully abide by it. That was the beginning of the great rupture between Carranza and Villa, which would cost so much blood in the immediate future of the Mexican Revolution.

The Aguascalientes Convention

In accordance with what was agreed in the Pact of Torreón, between October 10 and November 13, 1914, the Aguascalientes Convention was held at the Morelos Theater in the capital of the state of Hidrocálido. The assembly received the name of Great convention of military chiefs with command of forces and governors of the States.

Dissensions between Carranza and Villa and Zapata

The deliberations began on October 1 in Mexico City without the presence of Villista and Zapatista representatives. On the third day, Carranza submitted his resignation, which was not accepted by the convention. It was agreed to move the meeting to Aguascalientes so that the delegates from Villa and Zapata could attend.

The convention resumed on October 10 in Aguascalientes with the presence of delegates from Carranza, Villa, and Zapata. Carranza did not show up because he believed that the city was threatened by Pancho Villa and instead he moved to Veracruz.

In the sessions, the Zapatistas requested the resignation of Carranza as the first leader of the revolution and the total acceptance of the Ayala Plan formulated by Emiliano Zapata.

The general, Álvaro Obregón, read before the assembly a letter from Carranza in which he offered his resignation if Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata resigned from the command of their armies and withdrew from public life.

The brief presidencies of Eulalio Gutiérrez, Roque González Garza and Francisco Lagos Cházaro

The Aguascalientes Convention appointed Eulalio Gutiérrez as interim President, a decision that was unknown to Carranza.

The Carrancista forces left Mexico City when Zapata’s forces entered, and shortly after Villa’s arrived.

Zapata and Villa signed an agreement known as the Pact of Xochimilco, which basically stated that they would join forces to fight Carranza.

Eulalio Gutiérrez was subjected to pressure from Villa and Zapata and decided to move his government to San Luis Potosí, although he definitively resigned from the interim presidency shortly after.

Roque González Garza was named the new provisional President on January 16, 1915, ruling until June 10 of the same year when he was forced to resign in favor of Francisco Lagos Cházaro.

On August 2, the Carrancistas took Mexico City again and the Convention moved to Toluca and then to Cuernavaca, although without the Villistas.

The Battle of Celaya

Between April 6 and 15, 1915, clashes took place between the Northern Division, under the command of Pacho Villa, and constitutionalist troops commanded by Álvaro Obregón, near the Guanajuato city of Celaya. There were 2 important battles, the first between April 6 and 7 and the second, from April 13 to 15.

Obregón’s troops were victorious despite the numerical superiority of the Northern Division, backed by the firepower of its 86 machine guns.

For the defeated there were 6 thousand dead and they also lost a reconnaissance bleriot plane. The constitutionalists had 1,050 casualties.

Villa’s defeat was influenced by the fact that the Zapata-Villa pact did not work. After his defeat, Villa withdrew to León, Guanajuato. During the clashes in Celaya, Álvaro Obregón lost his right arm.

The Battle of Agua Prieta

Villa returned to the north and on November 1, 1915, attacked the Sonoran city of Agua Prieta, defended by Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, with victory for the constitutionalist forces.

During the battle, the United States allowed Obregón to cross its territory and gave him logistical support.

In October 2015, the US president, Woodrow Wilson, had de facto recognized Carrancismo, although conditioning his support on the preservation of US interests in Mexico.

Villa felt betrayed by the United States, at the same time that he accused Carranza of having accepted the American conditions to the detriment of Mexican sovereignty and economy.

the battle of columbus

Troops under the command of Pancho Villa attacked a US cavalry detachment in Columbus, New Mexico, on the morning of March 9, 1916.

Villa undertook the reckless action angered by the Wilson administration’s support for Carranza, particularly the huge electric lighthouses that the United States provided to Obregón to help him repel Villista’s nightly attack on the border town of Agua Prieta.

In January 1916, Villistas had ambushed a US railroad owned by the Mexico North Western Railway company, massacring 18 US citizens who worked for the Asarco mining company.

During Villa’s surprise raid on Columbus, 37 US military personnel and 18 US civilians were killed.

Villistas set fire to a hotel and seized 300 rifles, 80 horses and 30 mules.

The United States had not been attacked on its territory since the Anglo-American War and the campaign for retaliation was immediate.

The United States Punitive Expedition

The US Congress authorized a Punitive Expedition to punish Pancho Villa for his attack on Columbus on March 14, 1916.

A force of 10,000 soldiers under the command of General John J. Pershing entered Mexican territory and although their main objective was to find Villa, there were clashes with the Constitutionalist forces that came close to leading to a formal war.

Relations between the 2 countries entered into crisis and Carranza withdrew his ambassador from Washington, while Villa waged a guerrilla war against the Americans.

For 11 months, up to 12,000 US soldiers supported by an aerial squadron roamed the immense state of Chihuahua, without being able to find Villa.

The Punitive Expedition was the baptism of fire of the young lieutenants, George Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and constituted a training of the United States for its next incorporation to the First World War.

It was the first time Americans used motorized vehicles on the battlefield and the last time they used horses.

Carranza’s government

Information on the Mexican Revolution indicates that Venustiano Carranza was President of the United Mexican States between May 1, 1917 and May 21, 1920, the date of his assassination in Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla.

The Constituent Congress of 1917

Carranza began the Constitutionalist Revolution with the promise to restore the Constitution of 1857, but later he understood that the best thing was to write a new fundamental letter that included the promises of social redemption made to peasants and workers during the armed conflict, thus preventing other revolutionary leaders from take advantage of those flags to continue the war.

In mid-1916, despite multiple rebel fronts in the country, Carranza was the clear winner of the conflict and on September 14 he convened a constituent congress with only Carrancista representatives.

The constituent assembly was installed on December 1, 1916 at the Iturbide Theater in the city of Santiago de Querétaro.

This congress was in session until January 31, 1917 and promulgated the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, which entered into force on February 5 of the same year.

On February 6, Carranza called the elections to renew the 3 powers of the State and was elected President of the Republic with 98% of the votes for the period 1917-1920.

Carranza’s adversaries

Carranza did not manage to pacify the entire country as he had to deal with Villista uprisings in the north and Zapatista uprisings in the south, in addition to the counterrevolutionary movement of Félix Díaz and other rebel fronts in several Mexican states.

Apart from the armies of Villa and Zapata, during the period 1917-1918 Carranza was opposed by the forces of the Cedillo brothers, in San Luis Potosí, Cirilo Arenas, in Tlaxcala and Rafael Cal and Mayor Gurría and Tiburcio Fernández Ruiz and the mapachistas, in Chiapas.

Manuel Peláez Gorrochotegui on the upper coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Higinio Aguilar and the faction of the Oaxacan sovereignists headed by José Inés Dávila and Guillermo Meixueiro, and several groups in Michoacán, including supporters of Jesús Cintora and José Inés García, were also in revolt. Chavez.

The assassination of Emiliano Zapata

The Liberation Army of the South was a real nuisance to Carranza and the President, with the help of Pablo González, hatched a plan to assassinate Zapata.

The colonel, Jesús María Guajardo Martínez, appeared before Zapata pretending that he had broken off relations with Carranza and requesting his incorporation into the Liberation Army of the South.

Zapata demanded a proof of loyalty from Guajardo, asking him to arrest and shoot 50 members of the general, Victorino Bárcenas, who years before had betrayed him by joining the Constitutionalist Army.

Guajardo communicated Zapata’s demands to his bosses and they, including Carranza, approved the massacre.

Once the test was completed, Colonel Guajardo was admitted to the Zapatista army. After successfully carrying out some missions entrusted by Zapata, on April 10, 1919, Guajardo summoned the revolutionary leader to a meeting at the Chinameca hacienda, near Cuautla de Morelos, to deliver 5,000 cartridges.

At the hacienda, Zapata was greeted with a bugle call and then killed by the 10 soldiers of the honor guard.

The Agua Prieta Plan

The year 1920 was one of elections to renew public powers and as the electoral date approached it became evident that Carranza preferred the diplomat Ignacio Bonillas, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, as his successor.

Feeling betrayed by Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta, proclaimed the Agua Prieta Plan on April 23, 1920, ignoring the President and declaring the sovereignty of the state of Sonora.

The proclamation was seconded by various governors and revolutionary leaders of the former Northeast Division, starting a new movement called the Agua Prieta Rebellion, which spread rapidly.

Faced with the imminent attack on the capital by the rebels, Carranza made the decision to transfer the national government to Veracruz and left for that city.

The assassination of Venustiano Carranza

Carranza left for Veracruz, taking with him the national treasure, money-printing machines, military supplies, and part of the furniture of the National Palace. He was accompanied by members of his cabinet and his families.

The railway in which Carranza and his entourage were traveling was attacked at the Puebla stations of San Marcos, Rinconada and Aljibes.

Knowing that the railways had been dynamited, Carranza decided to enter the Sierra de Puebla in an attempt to reach the port of Veracruz. He was accompanied by several of his followers and an escort of cadets.

Upon reaching the small town of Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla, they stopped to rest. There he was assassinated in the early hours of May 21, 1920 by General Rodolfo Herrero’s troops, who machine-gunned the shack in which he slept.

Events after Carranza’s death

After Carranza’s assassination, Congress appointed Adolfo de la Huerta as interim president, a position he held between June 1 and November 30, 1920. In September, he called for elections in which Álvaro Obregón was elected President.

The assassination of Pancho Villa

One of the achievements of Adolfo de la Huerta during his interim term was to get Pancho Villa to abandon military life, granting him the Canutillo hacienda for his services to the revolution, to which the famous revolutionary retired to live as a landowner. However, Obregón and Calles never believed in Villa’s true withdrawal and, fearing an uprising by the caudillo, plotted his assassination.

Villa did not collaborate either, since in a journalistic interview granted in 1922 he stated that he only needed half an hour to put 40 thousand men under arms.

Villa was ambushed and killed on the afternoon of July 20, 1923 when he was driving to a family party in Hidalgo del Parral (Chihuahua). The United States is believed to have participated in the operation.

Presidencies of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles

Obregón governed Mexico between December 1, 1920 and November 30, 1924. In December 1923, when he was preparing to give the famous Mexican finger in favor of Plutarco Elías Calles as his successor, the Delahuertista Rebellion broke out in support of Adolfo de la Huerta, who wanted to replace the President.

The rebellion failed and the former interim President went into exile on March 11, 1924, taking refuge in Los Angeles, California.

As planned, the 1924 elections were won by Plutarco Elías Calles, who got 84.2% of the votes and governed between December 1, 1924 and November 30, 1928.

After a constitutional reform carried out in 1926, Álvaro Obregón was elected President again on July 1, 1928, being assassinated 16 days later.

Main characters of the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution had many characters in arms who carried out military campaigns throughout the country and with other civilians who did political work in the cities. The most important were the following.

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, 1830 – Paris, France, 1915)

During his long presidential term of more than 30 years, the social, economic and cultural problems that led to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution were maintained or accentuated.

After his exile in France, he traveled through North Africa and Egypt. According to the accounts of his wife, during the last months of his life he suffered from hallucinations, he lost his speech and notion of time.

He died on July 2, 1915 at the age of 84. His remains rest in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

Francisco Ignacio Madero González (Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, 1873 – Mexico City, 1913)

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 with his proclamation against the government of Porfirio Díaz. He held the presidency of Mexico between 1911 and 1913, when he was betrayed by Victoriano Huerta. He was assassinated on Huerta’s orders 4 days after the Tragic Decade, a period in which the coup d’état was perpetrated against his government.

The remains of the so-called Apostle of the Revolution were buried in the Panteón Francés de la Piedad (Mexico City) and in 1960 they were taken to the Panteón de la Revolución.

For many years there was controversy about whether his middle name was Ignacio or Indalecio. During the Centennial of the Mexican Revolution, the images of his birth certificate and his baptismal certificate were disseminated, in which he appears as Ygnacio (with Y, in accordance with the grammatical uses of the time).

José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (San Juan del Río, Durango, 1878 – Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, 1923)

Known as Francisco Villa and Pancho Villa, after a period of banditry in which he was a rustler, he joined the revolution becoming head of the Northern Division, the main military force during the revolutionary process.

Villa was responsible for the Taking of Zacatecas, which practically determined the end of the government established by Victoriano Huerta after the coup against Madero.

His reckless operation to attack US territory made him the most wanted man by the United States between 1916-1917. He liked to show off, giving frequent interviews and signed a contract with Hollywood to film his life and battles.

After being assassinated in 1923, his body was decapitated to deliver the head to William Randolph Hearst, an American media magnate who would have paid 5,000 dollars for the macabre trophy.

Emiliano Zapata Salazar (Anenecuilco, Morelos, 1879 – Chinameca, Morelos, 1919)

The so-called Caudillo del Sur became the symbol of the resistance of the peasants, victims of the abuses of ranchers and landowners backed by Porfirio Díaz.

His name once again had worldwide resonance on January 1, 1994 when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, made up of irregulars, temporarily occupied several towns in Chiapas on the same day that the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by USA, Canada and Mexico.

José Victoriano Huerta Márquez (Colotlán, Jalisco, 1845 – El Paso, Texas, USA, 1916)

The Mexican Revolution was a time of great betrayals, the most relevant being that of Victoriano Huerta against Francisco I. Madero, especially because despite the voices that warned him of his disloyalty, the President trusted him until the last moment.

After his controversial presidency, Huerta went into exile, first to Jamaica and then to England, Spain, and finally the United States.

While World War I was underway, he came into contact with the German Empire, which offered to finance a conspiracy in Mexico on the condition that he declare war on the United States. He was arrested in El Paso and after a period in jail, he received house arrest. He died in the Texas town on January 13, 1916, a victim of liver cirrhosis due to his well-known addiction to alcohol.

Venustiano Carranza Garza (Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila, 1859 -Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla, 1920)

He was the architect and maximum leader of the Constitutionalist Revolution that overthrew Victoriano Huerta. Under his auspices, the Mexican Constitution of 1917, currently in force, was promulgated.

After being riddled with bullets in 1920 in Tlaxcalantongo, Puebla, while fleeing the troops of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, he was buried in the Civil Pantheon of Dolores in the Mexican capital. His remains were transferred to the Pantheon of the Revolution in 1942.

Felipe Angeles (Zacualtipán, Hidalgo, 1868 – Chihuahua, Chihuahua, 1919)

At the beginning of the revolution he fought with Pascual Orozco’s troops in Chihuahua and after Madero’s triumph, he fought Emiliano Zapata. He was Pancho Villa’s trusted man, whom he represented at the Aguascalientes Convention.

He was arrested during the Tragic Decade together with Madero and José María Pino Suárez. After the assassinations of the President and Vice President, he was sent into exile in France, returning shortly after to join the Constitutionalist Army. After supporting Carranza he became his adversary, being shot in 1919.

Pánfilo Natera García (Zacatecas, Zacatecas, 1882 – San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, 1951)

He joined the Maderista movement in 1910, participating in confrontations against the federal army of Porfirio Díaz in his native state.

In 1912 he fought the rebels of Pascual Orozco who were facing President Madero. He supported Carranza during the Constitutionalist Revolution by commanding the central division.

He managed to get out of the Mexican Revolution alive and in 1937 he was promoted to division general during the government of Lázaro Cárdenas. He was governor of Zacatecas during the period 1940-1944.

Salvador Alvarado Rubio (Culiacán, Sinaloa, 1880 – Tenosique, Tabasco, 1924)

In 1910 he took up arms to fight with Madero. He did not know Huerta and was a noted general of the Constitutionalist Army, distinguishing himself in Yucatan, a state of which he was governor and military commander.

He fed the Carrancista army with substantial resources from the exploitation of henequen, then booming in Yucatan. As governor, he promulgated laws of social content that were precursors to the 1917 Constitution in the political, economic, agrarian, and labor spheres.

Pablo González Garza (Lampazos de Naranjo, Nuevo León, 1879 – Monterrey, Nuevo León, 1950)

He fought with the Maderista Revolution capturing several squares. During the Constitutionalist Revolution he was commander of the northeast division. In 1914 he took office in Monterrey, being promoted to division general.

Called by Carranza, he evicted the Villistas from Mexico City in 1915 and then fought the Zapatistas. He was the author of the plan to assassinate Emiliano Zapata. He attempted an uprising in 1920 and after failing he went into exile in the US He returned to Mexico in 1940 dying 10 years later. His remains rest in the Esplanade of the Heroes, in the Macroplaza of Monterrey.

Pascual Orozco Vázquez (San Isidro, Chihuahua, 1882 – El Paso, Texas, USA, 1915)

It rose up in arms in 1910 in support of the San Luis Plan formulated by Madero. He rebelled against him and supported Victoriano Huerta, who promoted him to brigadier general. He accompanied Huerta into exile in the United States and participated in the German-supported Huerta conspiracy to retake power in Mexico and declare war on the United States.

The conspiracy aborted, he was arrested, imprisoned and then sentenced to house arrest. He died when he escaped and tried to cross the Mexican border with the intention of taking up arms. He is buried in the Panteón de Dolores de Chihuahua.

Aquiles Serdán Alatriste (Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, 1877 – Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, 1910)

In 1909 he founded in Puebla the political club Luz y Progreso that opposed Porfirio Díaz. He joined Madero in Texas when Díaz was re-elected president in 1910. He returned to Mexico in late October of the same year to organize the Madero Revolution in his home state.

On November 17, 3 days before the date set by Madero to begin the revolution against Porfirio Díaz, Aquiles Cerdán died when his home was attacked. In 1932 he was named Benemérito de la Patria by President Abelardo L. Rodríguez.

Ricardo Flores Magón (Eloxochitlán, Oaxaca, 1873 – Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, 1922)

Writer, philosopher and anarchist considered one of the main intellectual precursors of the Mexican Revolution. He promoted armed struggle as a revolutionary tool and advocated the elimination of the State and private property.

Madero invited him to join the Maderista Revolution, but he rejected the offer, considering it a bourgeois movement destined to perpetuate the state of affairs in Mexico. He sympathized with Zapata but disliked Villa, who sent him to jail in Chihuahua. He was imprisoned in the US for his radical ideas and died in prison.

Álvaro Obregón Salido (Huatabampo, Sonora, 1880 – Mexico City, 1928)

He supported Madero in the war against Porfirio Díaz and after the revolutionary triumph he returned to private life. He returned to the fight to back Carranza as head of a division of the Constitutionalist Army that ousted Victoriano Huerta from power. He defeated Pancho Villa in the battle of Celaya where he lost his right arm to a shrapnel.

When the presidential succession was raised in 1920, he broke with Carranza and after his assassination he was elected president for the period 1920-1924.

After modifying the Constitution, he became a candidate again in 1928, being declared the winner of the elections, but his assassination frustrated his second government.

Francisco Plutarco Elías Campuzano (Guaymas, Sonora, 1877 – Mexico City, 1945)

Known as Plutarco Elías Calles, he became a supporter of Madero in 1912 to confront Pascual Orozco’s rebellion. After Huerta’s coup against Madero he joined the Constitutionalist Army of Venustiano Carranza. He received the finger of his fellow fighter Álvaro Obregón and was president in the period 1924-1928.

During his tenure, the Cristero War broke out due to the Calles Law, which limited the power and influence of the Catholic Church.

In 1929 he was among the founders of the National Revolutionary Party, predecessor of the PRI. He was an influential character in governments after his.

José María Pino Suárez (Tenosique, Tabasco, 1869 – Mexico City, 1913)

He was the last vice president of Mexico during the Madero government in the period 1911-1913. After Huerta’s coup d’état, he was forced to resign along with the President and was assassinated in the same operation at the Lecumberri Penitentiary, which ended Madero’s life.

The biography of the Mexican Revolution baptized him as the Knight of Loyalty and his hometown bears the name of Tenosique de Pino Suárez. Likewise, several streets and avenues in the country and a subway station in Mexico City bear his name.

How many people died in the Mexican Revolution?

It is difficult to specify how many died in the Mexican Revolution. Historical and demographic studies point to a minimum and maximum of 1 million and 3.1 million deaths, respectively.

The most rigorous study carried out in 1993 by the specialists Manuel Ordorica and José Luis Lezama, under the auspices of the National Population Council, establishes the number of deaths during the Mexican Revolution at 1.4 million. To this figure must be added 1.1 million abortive births and 400 thousand emigrants to other countries.

The Mexican Revolution in the national culture

Cultural production has also helped to understand what the Mexican Revolution is through literature, music, cinema and art, facets in which the revolutionary process had a significant impact.

The Mexican Revolution and literature

Among the main literary works that have the Mexican Revolution as their theme or setting are:

• Those from Below (1916 novel by Mariano Azuela).
• The Eagle and the Serpent (1928 novel by Martín L. Guzmán).
• The Shadow of the Caudillo (1929 novel by Martín L. Guzmán).
• Cartridge: Accounts of the Struggle in Northern Mexico (1931 accounts by Francisca Moya who wrote under the pseudonym Nellie Campobello).
• Ulysses Creole (1935 work by José Vasconcelos).
• The Storm (1936 work by José Vasconcelos).
• The Shining (1937 novel by Mauricio Magdaleno).

Mexican Revolution for Children: Some Mexican publishers and organizations have published works on the Mexican Revolution aimed at children. This material or how to acquire it are available on the Internet.

The Mexican Revolution and the cinema

The reasons why the Mexican Revolution arose and the development of the conflict have been extensively treated in national cinema.

During the revolution, several cameramen shot real footage of the events. Salvador Toscano recorded short scenes with his Lumiere cinematographer, which were edited by his daughter, Carmen Toscano, in the film Memorias de un mexicana (1950).

The Alva brothers filmed Madero and Jesús H. Abitia, who accompanied the Northern Division, filmed Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón.

During the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, films such as:

• Let’s go with Pancho Villa (1935, directed by Fernando de Fuentes).
• The Adelita (1937, Guillermo Hernández G.).
• With the Dorados de Villa (1939, Raúl de Anda).
• If Adelita left with another (1948, Chano Urueta).
• Long live Zapata! (1952, Elia Kazan, with Marlon Brando playing Zapata).
• The hidden (1955, Roberto Gavaldon).
• This was Pancho Villa (1957, Ismael Rodríguez).
• Pancho Villa and Valentina (1958, Ismael Rodríguez).
• When long live Villa! is death (1958, Ismael Rodríguez).
• The Valentine (1966, Roberto Rodriguez).
• The soldadera (1966, José Bolaños).
• Zapata, the hero’s dream (2004, Alfonso Arau).

The following film material collects real images of the Mexican Revolution.

The Mexican Revolution and music

What happened in the Mexican Revolution was also the subject of many musical themes. The corrido, a musical genre that likes to narrate real events with an epic tone, had a great vein in the revolutionary process.

Some popular heroes of the revolution that inspired corridos were Zapata, Madero, Villa and Felipe Ángeles.

Probably the best known corrido related to the Mexican Revolution is La Adelita:

The Mexican Revolution and art

What was the Mexican Revolution also had its expression in works of art by famous Mexican artists, some declared revolutionaries.

At the age of 18, David Alfaro Siqueiros joined the Constitutionalist Revolution and in 1922, after a trip through Europe, he returned to Mexico and worked as a muralist for the government of Álvaro Obregón.

In 1932, Siqueiros and Diego Rivera founded the Union of Revolutionary Mexican Painters, Sculptors and Engravers.

In 1957-1966, Siqueiros painted the mural From Porfirismo to the Revolution in the later named Sala Siqueiros of Chapultepec Castle.

Diego Rivera was a revolutionary militant and part of his work expresses what happened in the Mexican Revolution. The mural he painted in the Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City contains scenes from the revolution.

The violence and death associated with the process of the Mexican Revolution inspired José Clemente Orozco in the mural La trenchera, which he painted in 1922-1926 in the old Colegio de San Ildefonso.

Museums and monuments dedicated to the Mexican Revolution

Several museums help to have a complete summary of the Mexican Revolution.

The National Museum of the Revolution in Mexico City, opened in 1986, covers national history from 1857 to 1920. It contains valuable information on the war. It is located in the basement of the Monument to the Revolution.

The Museum of the Mexican Revolution in Puebla works in the family home of Aquiles Serdán, where the Pueblan revolutionary was assassinated in 1910.

The Historical Museum of the Revolution, in Chihuahua, is located in the former house of Luz Corral, the only one of the more than 70 women of Pancho Villa whom the revolutionary married in the church.

Other Museums of the Revolution are in Torreón and Saltillo (Coahuila) and in Ciudad Obregón (Sonora).

The main commemorative architectural work is the Monument to the Revolution, a 1938 work by Carlos Obregón Santacilia.

It houses the remains of Francisco I. Madero, Pancho Villa, Plutarco Elías Calles and Lázaro Cárdenas. It is located in the Colonia Tabacalera integrating a complex with the Plaza de la República and the National Museum of the Revolution.

The Adelitas

The revolution bequeathed to Mexican popular culture the famous Adelitas, women who participated in the battlefields without being forced to do so.

Some who distinguished themselves were Petra Herrera (Coahuila), Margarita Neri (Guerrero), Rosa Bobadilla (Morelos), Juana Ramona widow of Flores (Sinaloa) and María de Jesús de la Rosa “La Coronela” (Tamaulipas).

These soldaderas worked mainly as nurses, cooks, laundresses, and carrying weapons and supplies.

The generic name comes from Adela Velarde Pérez, an authentic Adelita from Ciudad Juárez who in 1913 joined the Constitutionalist Army troops commanded by Colonel Alfredo Breceda as a nurse.

His grandfather, Rafael Velarde, was a friend of Benito Juárez and gave refuge to Benemérito de las Américas during his stay in northern Mexico.

Background of the Mexican Revolution

The history of the Mexican Revolution indicates as its main antecedents the marked social inequalities in Mexico, accentuated during the long government of Porfirio Díaz.

The peasants were exploited by the ranchers and landowners in the vast Mexican rural territories, while the workers who worked in the industrial companies lived in misery in the cities. Porfirio Díaz’s attempt at a new re-election in 1910 was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Historical context of the Mexican Revolution

The historical context of how the Mexican Revolution began has its main element in the Porfiriato, a period from 1876 to 1911 dominated by the governments of Porfirio Díaz.

During this stage the rural oligarchy increased its power by subjugating the peasantry, and industries such as the railway, mining and oil, had a great boom contributing to the emergence of a working class that survived with miserable salaries.

Mexican Revolution causes

The exploitation of the peasants on the farms and of the workers in the mines and factories created the conditions for the Mexican Revolution to break out.

In 1910, some members of the Mexican political class, headed by Francisco I. Madero, concluded that the state of affairs would last forever if Porfirio Díaz was reelected for a new term and the unity around the non-reelection of the President was the trigger for the revolution.

Development of the Mexican Revolution

The development of the Mexican Revolution began in the north of the country, especially in Chihuahua and Durango, with the movements carried out by Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa and other revolutionary leaders.

Sonora, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Guerrero, Puebla and other states soon joined, turning the process into a national uprising from which only the southern states were excluded due to their isolation and lack of communication routes.

Consequences of the Mexican Revolution

The main political consequence was the Constitution of Querétaro of 1917, which made it possible to shape modern Mexico with its strengths and weaknesses.

When the Mexican Revolution began, less than 1% of the population owned 85% of the arable land, and the agrarian reform legislation made it possible to modify this situation.

The revolution also brought advances in public education, labor rights, public health, religious freedom, and on other economic and social fronts.

Mexican Revolution characters

The Mexican Revolution had several characters who became popular heroes such as Francisco I. Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Venustiano Carranza and Felipe Ángeles.

On the counterrevolutionary side stood out Porfirio Díaz, Victoriano Huerta, Félix Díaz and Bernardo Reyes.

The US ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, was another character with a decisive influence on the events of the Mexican Revolution, especially for his support for the overthrow of President Francisco I. Madero.

What was the Mexican Revolution summary?

It was a political and military process that allowed ending the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz and promulgating a constitution that is still in force. It was also one of the bloodiest periods in Mexican history, with more than a million dead, thousands mutilated, and hundreds of thousands of frustrated and displaced births.

Why was the Mexican Revolution?

The question of why the Mexican Revolution began has always had an answer: it began to correct the obvious social inequalities that existed in Mexico in 1910. Was it successful? The conquests in matters such as the distribution of land, labor legislation, public education and the emergence of a middle class show that the revolution was partially successful, although many of the current Mexican problems have not been resolved by governments. heirs.

What is the beginning of the Mexican Revolution?

The date of the Mexican Revolution that marked its beginning was November 20, 1910, when the revolutionary leader, Francisco I. Madero, called for a general uprising against the government of Porfirio Díaz to prevent his seventh re-election as President of the Republic.

This call was made by Madero in the Plan of San Luis, a political document that he began to draft in San Luis Potosí and ended in San Antonio (USA). The review of November 20 indicates that the call was attended in several points of Mexico.

What happened at the end of the Mexican Revolution?

After the assassination of Venustiano Carranza in 1920, the governments of Álvaro Obregón (1920-1924) and Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-1928) succeeded each other.

Obregón tried a second government in 1928 and was elected President of the Republic again, but he was assassinated a few days later.

During the Calles government, the Cristero War (1926-1929) broke out in which lay militias and Catholic priests clashed with the federal army.

What did Emiliano Zapata do?

Emiliano Zapata was a revolutionary and agrarian leader who earned a place in the pantheon of Mexican folk heroes for his defense of peasant rights during the Mexican Revolution.

First he supported Madero and then he opposed him, stating that he had betrayed the postulates of the revolution. He was assassinated at the request of Venustiano Carranza.

What is the Mexican Revolution for preschool children?

The Mexican Revolution is explained to preschool and primary school children with texts appropriate to their age.

Cartoon of the Mexican Revolution: some publications available on the Internet collect in an educational and entertaining way the process of the revolution for children.

What was achieved with the Mexican Revolution?

The constitution approved during the Mexican Revolution was the first openly liberal in the world and was a pioneer in the establishment of social and labor rights.

Likewise, it established that the State would remain on the sidelines of religious doctrines. During the revolution the first confederation of Mexican workers was founded and the development of trade unionism began. The agrarian legislation led to a fairer distribution of land.

How long did the Mexican Revolution last?

Every review of the Mexican Revolution indicates that it began in 1910 with Madero’s call for a general uprising against Porfirio Díaz, but there are discrepancies regarding its completion date.

The most accepted version postulates that it ended in 1917 with the promulgation of the Constitution of Querétaro. According to this criterion, the Mexican Revolution took place between November 20, 1910 (Madero’s call for the uprising against Díaz) and February 5, 1917 (entry into force of the constitution), for which it lasted 6 years, 2 months. and 16 days.

What did Emiliano Zapata do in the Mexican Revolution?

Emiliano Zapata fought during the Mexican Revolution, first against Porfirio Díaz supporting Madero and then against Victoriano Huerta supporting Carranza. However, Zapata liked to act autonomously and almost always fought without subordinating his army to other commanders. He broke with Madero and then with Carranza, considering that they were not taking the necessary measures to favor the peasants, who were the main object of his struggles.

Why did Emiliano Zapata die?

Zapata died because President Venustiano Carranza considered him to be a formidable enemy with an armed army, which he refused to subordinate to the federal army.

The agrarian laws that Zapata aspired to were not approved by either Madero or Carranza, and the agrarian leader always refused to discharge his troops until those demands were achieved. Furthermore, Zapata had his own political program contained in the Plan de Ayala.

How is the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution celebrated?

The anniversary of the Mexican Revolution celebrated on November 20 is a national holiday, although the break is enjoyed on the third Monday of the month.

The date is commemorated with a parade through several streets in the center of Mexico City. In the 2019 celebration, 2,700 horses and the Petra locomotive participated, which was part of a railway controlled by the Zapatista army.

Likewise, there are representations of the revolution in the zócalo, military promotion ceremonies and the National Sports Award is given. Similar events are held in other cities of the country.

Where and when did the Mexican Revolution occur?

The Mexican Revolution began in the north of Mexico and later spread to the other states of the republic, especially in the center, center-south and west.

The first armed act occurred on November 21, 1910 in Ciudad Guerrero (Chihuahua), when the revolutionary troops of Pascual Orozco defeated the third cavalry regiment of the army of Porfirio Díaz. The revolutionary process lasted until 1917.

Who is Doroteo Arango and what did he do?

Doroteo Arango, better known as Pancho Villa, was a controversial revolutionary leader who emerged victorious in several confrontations that brought Francisco I. Madero to power first and then Venustiano Carranza.

He starred in one of the most reckless acts of the revolution when he attacked the American town of Columbus.

The history of the Mexican Revolution points to Villa as a bold, brave, cruel and undisciplined man. He was assassinated in 1923 at the behest of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles.

Who was in the Mexican Revolution?

During the first stage of the Mexican Revolution, called the Maderista Revolution, the main opposing figures were Francisco I. Madero, initiator of the revolutionary movement, and the president, Porfirio Díaz.

During the second stage, called the Constitutionalist Revolution, Venustiano Carranza relaunched the process to overthrow Victoriano Huerta. Madero and Carranza were backed by Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Felipe Ángeles and other revolutionary commanders.

What was the role of Francisco Villa in the Mexican Revolution?

The main service provided by Villa to the revolution was the Taking of Zacatecas with which he cleared the way to Mexico City, decreeing the end of the government of Victoriano Huerta that had arisen with the coup against President Madero.

Villa then confronted Carranza, was defeated by Álvaro Obregón in 1915 at the Battle of Celaya, and returned north where he continued to operate independently and unpredictably.

He attacked Columbus (USA) in 1916 after US President Woodrow Wilson decided to support Carranza.

Who were the main leaders of the Mexican Revolution?

The term caudillo is applied to political and military leaders of great relevance and is generally used to refer to characters from the 19th and 20th centuries.

In Mexico, some leaders of the Independence were Hidalgo, Morelos and Guerrero. During the Mexican Revolution the main ones were Díaz, Madero, Carranza, Zapata and Villa.

Why did the Mexican Revolution arise?

The main causes of the Mexican Revolution were the social inequalities that Mexico dragged from the colony, some of which were accentuated during the Porfiriato.

These inequalities were marked by the dependence and exploitation of the peasants in the large estates and the proletarianization of the population of the cities.

Why was the Mexican Revolution ?

The Mexican Revolution had political, social, economic and cultural causes, particularly the deep social inequalities, the exploitation of peasants and workers, the lack of freedoms and the corruption of the ruling elites.

Why is the Mexican Revolution important?

The Mexican Revolution was the first liberal revolutionary movement of the 20th century and led to momentous changes in Mexican life, mainly related to the distribution of land, national wealth, political, union and labor freedoms and the separation of State and church.

What leaders stood out in the Mexican Revolution?

The main revolutionary leaders were Francisco I. Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Pascual Orozco, Felipe Ángeles, Pánfilo Natera, Pablo González Garza, Salvador Alvarado, Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles.

What happened at the end of the Mexican Revolution?

At the end of the Mexican Revolution, Carranza defeated Victoriano Huerta and the Constitution of Querétaro was approved, which many authors point to as the end of the revolutionary process.

Then Carranza was assassinated and the governments of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles came, which according to other authors, were the ones that marked the end of the revolution.

What was the greatest achievement of the Mexican Revolution?

Among the main achievements of the Mexican Revolution were the change in the political structures in force until the Porfiriato and the redistribution of land ownership, which before the revolutionary process was overwhelmingly in the hands of landowners and large landowners.

Which women participated in the Mexican Revolution?

The Adelitas performed auxiliary tasks in the revolutionary armies and many ventured into the battlefields as nurses and combatants.

Among the most prominent were Adela Velarde Pérez, who gave her name to the character, Petra Herrera “La Generala”, María de Jesús de la Rosa “La Coronela”, Margarita Neri, Rosa Bobadilla and Juana Ramona Flores.

Other women stood out in the intellectual field and in political activism such as Hermila Galindo, Juana Belén Gutiérrez, Dolores Jiménez y Muro, and Natalia and María del Carmen Serdán Alatriste, sisters of Aquiles Serdán Alatriste.

What was achieved with the Mexican Revolution?

A change of structures was achieved that allowed the old way of managing Mexico to be modified. The middle and popular classes entered the state bureaucracy participating in government work; the agrarian reform led to a fairer distribution of the land and the church reduced its influence in the conduct of the State.

How long did the Mexican Revolution last?

According to the most accepted version, the Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and ended in 1917 with the promulgation of the Constitution of Querétaro, for which it lasted just over 6 years.

Other sources indicate that it ended in 1920, the year of the death of Venustiano Carranza and the coming to power of Álvaro Obregón. Other authors indicate that it lasted until 1924 when the government of Plutarco Elías Calles began.

Who launches the San Luis Plan?

The Plan of San Luis was Francisco I. Madero’s political manifesto with which he called on Mexicans to rise up against the continuity of Porfirio Díaz, who had already been governing for more than 30 years.

It owes its name to the fact that Madero dated it on October 5, 1910 in San Luis Potosí, although he completed it in San Antonio (Texas) where he had taken refuge.

Who was the Adelita in the Mexican Revolution?

The Adelitas were the women who helped the revolutionary armies by working as nurses, cooking, washing clothes and doing other domestic chores. Some fought and reached military ranks, although they were not required to fight.

This character inspired the corrido La Adelita, one of the most popular in Mexican music.

Who is the initiator of the Mexican Revolution?

The Mexican Revolution was started in 1910 by Francisco I. Madero, son of a wealthy family of landowners from Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila.

In the Plan of San Luis, Madero called on the Mexicans to rise up on November 20, 1910 against Porfirio Díaz, which marked the beginning of the revolutionary process.

What was established in the San Luis Plan?

In the Plan of San Luis Madero, he ignored Porfirio Díaz as President and the other powers of the State and called for a general uprising to establish a new government that would vindicate the aspirations of peasants and workers for a better life.

Who was the first revolutionary woman?

It is difficult to specify who was the first female combatant during the Mexican Revolution. It is known that Petra Herrera fought with the Maderista troops dressed as a man in the first taking of Torreón, in May 1911. Her name was reflected in the Corrido of the taking of Torreón. She also took part in the second taking of Torreón in 1914 and later left Pancho Villa’s army to create her own brigade of women combatants.

What happened in the Tragic Decade?

During the so-called Tragic Decade, a period between February 9 and 18, 1913, Victoriano Huerta’s coup against President Francisco I. Madero was perpetrated.

Huerta allied himself with Madero’s enemies who occupied the fortress of La Ciudadela and after the success of the coup he had, first, Gustavo Madero, the President’s brother, and then Francisco I, Madero, and the vice president, José María Pino Suárez, assassinated.

Mexican Revolution day

The Day of the Mexican Revolution is November 20 in commemoration of that date in 1910 when the uprising against the government of Porfirio Díaz began.

End of the Mexican Revolution

There are 3 dates that are indicated by the authors as the end of the Mexican Revolution:

• February 5, 1917: entry into force of the Constitution of Querétaro.
• December 1, 1920: start of Álvaro Obregón’s government after the assassination of Venustiano Carranza (May 21, 1920).
• December 1, 1924: beginning of the government of Plutarco Elías Calles.

Some authors point out that the revolution ended in 1940 when the government of President Lázaro Cárdenas ended, during which the agrarian reform was carried out and other revolutionary laws were enacted.

When did the Mexican Revolution end?

Information on the Mexican Revolution indicates that it began in November 1910 (start of the revolutionary process) and ended in February 1917 (enactment of the Querétaro Constitution).

Other sources take the year of completion to 1920 (beginning of the constitutional period of Álvaro Obregón), 1924 (beginning of the period of Plutarco Elías Calles) and 1940 (end of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas).

The most important of the Mexican Revolution

The non-reelection of the president has prevented political figures from becoming eternal in power, in the style of Porfirio Díaz, who practically became constitutional dictators.

Although many inequalities persist in Mexico, the revolution produced a break and an important change in the political, economic and social spheres.

The work that resorted for the first time to the theme of the Mexican Revolution is entitled: Los de bajo

The novel Los de bajo, by the doctor and writer, Mariano Azuela González, was the first important literary work that had the Mexican Revolution as its central theme.

Its main characters are Demetrio Macías, a peasant who fights against Victoriano Huerta’s army, and Luis Cervantes, a journalist and member of the combatant group led by the former.

Mariano Azuela (Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, 1873 – Mexico City, 1952) participated in the Mexican Revolution as a doctor in Pancho Villa’s army.

Why is it celebrated on November 20?

On November 20, Mexico celebrates the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution in commemoration of the date of 1910, in which the uprising against Porfirio Díaz took place at the request of Francisco I. Madero.

From what year to what year was the Mexican Revolution

There are several versions of how long the Mexican Revolution lasted. The most accepted is that it began in 1910 with the uprising promoted by Madero against the government of Porfirio Díaz and ended in 1917 with the deliberations of the Constituent Congress of Querétaro and the promulgation of the new constitution.

What happened after the Mexican Revolution

After the promulgation of the Constitution of Querétaro in 1917, Carranza exercised power until his assassination in 1920. Later came the governments of Obregón (1920-1924) and Calles (1924-1928). During the mandate of Plutarco Elías Calles, the Cristero War took place. After Calles, Mexico was governed by Emilio Portes Gil (interim president after the assassination of the elected president, Álvaro Obregón), Pascual Ortiz Rubio (1930-1932), Abelardo Rodríguez (1932-1934) and Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940).

Where did the Mexican Revolution take place?

The Mexican Revolution began in the north of the country and then the revolutionary armies advanced towards the center until they reached Mexico City.

The first uprising occurred in Gómez Palacio (Durango), which is why this town is called the cradle of the Mexican Revolution.

States that participated in the Mexican Revolution

The first states where there were uprisings after Madero’s call in 1910 were Chihuahua, Durango, San Luis Potosí and Veracruz. Uprisings followed in Coahuila, Sonora, Guerrero and Morelos. When Madero forced the resignation of Porfirio Díaz in 1911, almost all the states of the country participated in the Mexican Revolution, except those in the south.

Mexican Revolution: Summary

The Mexican Revolution summary: political and military process started in 1910 that ended with the governments of Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta, produced more than a million deaths and laid the foundations for the current Mexico.

Mexican Revolution causes and consequences: its main causes were economic and social inequalities. Its main consequence was the promulgation of the current constitution of Mexico.

Mexican Revolution summary pdf: several documents that summarize the Mexican Revolution are available on the Internet in pdf.

November 20 Mexican Revolution: on November 20, 1910 the Mexican Revolution began and on that date the anniversary or Day of the Revolution is celebrated throughout the country.

Mexican Revolution short summary: process developed between 1910 and 1917 that marked a turning point in the history of Mexico.

Historical review of the November 20 Mexican Revolution: on November 20, 1910 there were 8 uprisings in Chihuahua, 3 in Veracruz, one in Durango and one in San Luis Potosí, beginning the Mexican Revolution.

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